If you’re looking for a candidate for who could be the current generation’s version of a Townes Van Zandt or Guy Clark (not comparing him directly, but just follow me here), John Moreland could be an excellent candidate. Though you may never see him grace the stage at the CMA’s or hear him on the radio (but never say never I guess), he’s the kind of songwriter with such aching authenticity and universal impact to open-eared listeners of whatever stripes that like a big rush of water pushing up against a dam, at some point it has no choice but to burst through.

John Moreland has already received the praise of the likes of Jason Isbell who he’s toured with before and dozens of others, but an endorsement from one of the biggest females in country music at the moment is a pretty big deal.

Apparently during AmericanaFest a couple of weeks ago, Miranda Lambert took time out of her busy schedule to take in a set by Moreland, and during a long-winded Instagram post on Monday made sure the world knew he comes with a ringing endorsement from her. Also included in the post was praise for Lake Street Dive, Aubrie Sellers, and her current beau, Anderson East.

But this is far from the first time Miranda Lambert has shared her John Moreland love. Last year Miranda and a friend drove all the way to Little Rock to take in a John Moreland show and snapped a picture with him afterwards.

“Sometimes you just need to jump in the truck … with your girlfriend and road trip to Little Rock,” Miranda Lambert said at the time. “Especially when you get to see one of the most amazing songwriters to ever grace this planet at a bar with Christmas lights up year round! Thank you John Moreland for changing my life with your words and your voice. Best Monday night ever!”

Will we see a cover of a John Moreland song on an upcoming Miranda Lambert record? She has covered John Prine, Susanna Clark, Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, and did a Chris Stapleton song before he was big, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

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For as much crap as she gets in comments here sometimes — which I’ll never understand — she has always advocated for acts like this on Twitter. I first listened to Will Hoge because Miranda tweeted about his new album coming out and I believe she was the reason I first listened to Jason Isbell as well.

In truth most of the big names have their favorite smaller name artists (and yes it’s generally linked to er personal or professional relationships), that they advocate for..generally on social media. As much as we like to drag the mainstream musicians, most of them do appreciate the song writers, and have an understanding and appreciation for good music. Very few of them started out as mainstream musicians.

You nailed it BWareDWare. I’m not personally a big fan of her music but she does have talent as a songwriter and has some songs I kinda enjoy. But it’s that attitude that I can’t stand and let’s be real, her true, non-studio voice can be grating to listen to.

The song that put her on the map was a personalized re-writing of a Steve Earle song. “Giving Up On Love” is a direct imitation of “Feel Alright” by Earle. Yeah, she paid the money for it and cut a deal, but she’s no songwriter. She’s an advocate for “tough and strong” women with her songs and that’s about it. One trick pony who gets her material from other folks. Maybe she will cover a Moreland song since she won’t ever be writing anything worthwhile. AND Moreland is nowhere close to Van Zandt or Clarke. No one is and no one ever will be. Trash report on a trash topic.

Yes Earle got half of the royalties for the music but she wrote the lyrics. He was an influence and right away gave credit. He made a pretty penny on the song and didn’t complain. But you are totally wrong about her songwriting skills. Go listen to Miranda’s solo cuts on her albums and get back to me about her not being a writer. Seems “Ultrahateful” is a hater. Also John Moreland has a great artist. Bless your heart.

“Gunpowder and Lead” is not stylistically among my favorite song of hers. But I gotta give her a little credit for sticking to her guns and not giving into political correctness. It is good to see someone in our contemporary pop culture presenting a more assertive perspective on the right to bear arms. She’s much better than anti gun celebs like Shania Twain who used to wave the “country” banner for self promotion purposes.

She really seems to be going for street cred lately. This actually made me disappointed in how AC the production is of Vice. Would like to see her move back to more country (but I’ll be fair and say I don’t think Jason Isbell or especially Anderson East is country…..they are Americana…it is ok for those two genres to be separate).

Funny that you mentioned Vice. I was just reading an Billboard article about Vice from a few weeks back and Miranda mentioned John. “Lambert had her mind on indie artist John Moreland as they fashioned the opening line — “Sting of the needle dropping on a vinyl” “

Miranda does not need street cred. She has ALWAYS promoted artists that she likes/attends their shows b/c she wants to share her love of the music. While others do trendy encores of pop songs, Miranda normally does other type of songs to expose them to her audience. Her praise of Isbell, Adam Hood, Eli Young Band, Moreland all had me listening to their music. Yeck even Ashley Monroe & Angaleena Presley got bigger audiences from Pistol Annies. Look who she has covered on CDs, concerts etc shows her musical taste.

I remember a great YouTube clip of her playing with cross Canadian ragweed. She has great taste if she likes Cody and the boys! I don’t get all the hate towards her. To my ears she is the better of the popular folks. She leans commercial sometimes, clearly, but does enough stuff outside of the box to keep me interested. That said, I didn’t like Four and skipped the last one altogether. I am hoping this new one will show her being a little more creative again.

Copy that. I never really paid Miranda Lambert any mind. But I keep going back to Southern Family (apart from the Zac Brown song, which may be genuine, but is musically bland and cliche). I really love Cobb’s compilation. Can’t believe some of those songs were not released to radio, or at least they should have garnered far more attention. And “Sweet By and By” by Lambert (yeah, I put another “by” on purpose; it’s 4am in Japan) is a great song. Keep trying to get my daughter to listen to it’s message, haha! Anyway, between “Sweet By and By” and praising Moreland, I have to believe there is far more to Lambert than I ever suspected.

I consider myself a big fan of Miranda Lambert, but when I really think about it – I don’t listen to many of radio singles and there are plenty songs I’ll skip over when listening to her albums. That being said, songs like Greyhound Bound for No Where, Airstream, Makin Plans, Time to Get a Gun, More Like Her, Nobody’s Fool (written by Chris Stapleton), Dead Flowers, Dear Diamond, Love Letters, Holdin’ Onto You, Old Shit (Brent Cobb), Same Old You (Brandi Carlile), Dry Town (Gillian Welch)… I could go on but those are some recommendations off the top of my head!

(sigh.) This is her most redeeming quality, her devotion to roots music and the “underground.”
I still call her out for her husband’s comments about Traditional Country Music, but by and large her actions have since made up for that oversight.
Is she talented?
Not really.
Is her heart in the right place?
I think so.
She’s done a lot for a lot of up-and-comings who deserve her superstar status more than she does. I think she’s aware that she got there by a stroke of luck, I think she knows that her art is outclassed by a lot of unknowns, and I think she actually cares about fixing it.
I’d never buy an album of hers, and I don’t think she deserves a lot of the awards she gets, but she seems a little more self-aware and honest about her art than many of her peers.
I love the Pistol Annies, because the quality and most of all uniqueness of the songwriting really raises the bar, in my mind, and I respect her dedication to quality music with her choice of material to cover.

I believe, and maybe I’m overestimating her, but I think she understands something that most of her peers don’t.

It’s not about you, it’s about the genre, it’s about the audience, and it’s about music.

” I believe, and maybe I’m overestimating her, but I think she understands something that most of her peers don’t.”

And THIS is of paramount importance , I think F2S .

I disagree with your comment that ML isn’t talented . Only my opinion , of course , but being in the trenches for nearly 50 years myself I’ve heard , seen , recorded, written with , worked with and worked FOR an awful lot of folks , as you might imagine . Miranda’s vocals are again , in my opinion , one of a kind . Her ability to deliver a lyric with the appropriate emotional conviction and authenticity regardless of that lyrics’ narrative or genre-straddling aspects is unsurpassed ..particularly in mainstream . I can think of , perhaps , Loretta , Patty Loveless and only a few others capable of this .
Commercially speaking ….hey …let’s face it ….I believe most music-purchasing /listening/supporting folks would as soon watch a youthful and very pretty Miranda deliver a great lyric ( her own or another writer’s ) than a songwriter who is perhaps not quite as ” visually marketable ” and that only serves a great writer in the end . ( You can see how diplomatic and inoffensive I’m trying to be here , I hope ) . It’s a culture geared to youth and beauty and sex appeal and if Miranda can use whatever she holds in those departments to further the cause of a GREAT song I’m gonna gamble that ANY serious songwriter would happily let her do that with his/her music . For her great looks and success , Shania Twain didn’t have that emotional range or understanding of great songs and consequently became the precursor of all that is wrong with mainstream ”country music” . Nor do so many other ” mainstreamers” . Miranda could have gone the Shania route and sang trite , substance-less songs and probably still sold truckloads playing up the other aspects of her ‘ appeal ‘ . But she hasn’t . I believe that Miranda believes in the power of a great lyric and , as you point out , most definitely understands what her peers do not . Perhaps when she isn’t ‘ working ‘ for a major label more of us will concede that fact and appreciate what she brings to the table in that respect .

Say what you will, but Miranda’s success was no “stroke of luck”. She hit the ground running from the very beginning, and still tours CONSTANTLY. If your not a fan, that’s your prerogative, but give credit where it’s due. You seem to have a particular tone, on this post and many others, concerning female county artists… as if their success was a fluke, handed to them and not deserved. Miranda knew what she wanted and paid plenty of dues to get it.

I don’t hate female artists. I hate bad artists. And I hate them all equally.

Miranda Lambert is talented by the standards of today’s Country Radio, but that’s like saying a pitchfork with only one broken tine is better than a pitchfork with three or more broken tines.

Compared to the rich history of Country Music she doesn’t measure up.

Any sane person honestly think she sings as well as Lorrie Morgan? how about Patsy or Loretta?

she’s a cut above Cam and Kelsea Ballerini, no doubt, but compared to the top-tier talent from the past, and also in the underground like Sara Watkins, I see no reason to ever listen to Miranda Lambert.

So, in a way, her success was a fluke. She happens to be working in an industry in which completely talentless people like Cole Swindell get record deals. She’s marginally better than he is. ergo she comes across as talented.

If she’d tried to make it twenty years ago she’d be a zero.

Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to go listen to some Jean Shepard before work.

Actually single biggest thing would be to bring him on tour with her, but she has to sell tickets. I think it’s really cool though when stars bring emerging artists out on tour. Miranda did this a bit last year with her roadside bars tour, the single thing I like best about Blake is that he’s brought some of his voice contestants on tour, Keith did it with Maren (before she had her hit), etc.

I think it would be really cool if the artists playing stadium tours (Luke, Kenny) had an emerging artists component or stage, to kick of the stadium day.

Kenny used to do that side stage at his stadium shows a few years back. He also allowed an unknown local act from each city he played in to open his shows. I know Frankie Ballard and a few others broke out nationally from those opportunities.

To me, John Moreland is an artist that’s worth covering in a live setting, but cutting one of his songs would be a huge risk because who’s to say that you can sell the emotion like he can? I truly believe he’s lived what he sings, and his voice is so ripe with conviction I just don’t know if another artist can capture that same conviction.

His songs are so good. Part of that is the moan in his voice, the sharing of his pain. The material must seem practically untouchable for other artists.

Miranda has always supported smaller unknown acts. One of the things I love about her.
I have ‘discovered’ a lot of acts through her recommendations and album cuts to concert covers of old songs I did’t know.
To name a few acts – Stapleton, Ashley M, Angeleena, Isbell, Whiskey Myers, Adam Hood, Lake street drive, John, Brandi C, Whitey M, Brandy Clark.

Moreland’s latest album is a great one – give it a spin and enjoy. I put him up there with Cody Jinks as my favorite ‘under the radar’ artists right now.

As for Miranda’s recognition – I think it’s nothing but a good thing. She holds influence and sway (and I know we could debate whether its fully deserved) but for her to help give him her stamp of approval is a nice thing to do. I’ll disagree mightily that now she MUST record one of his songs to prove she likes him.

Ergo, moral of this story…good for Moreland, good for Miranda. Now somehow the comments may drift into all sorts of negativity for minimal reason but such is the internets.

And this is why I love Miranda Lambert! She’s always been a huge fan of great country music and not afraid to show it. And this is just the reminder I needed to spin a couple of John Moreland albums I had.

So it would be uncommercial probably,, but what if Miranda recorded a full album called “Sings The Songs of John Moreland” (which is a tradition in country music) backed by a crack band of traditional country musicians, how would her fans and those who are not currently fans view such a project? Seems she has enough clout at this point to take that risk.

I am about the most vocal critic of hers, but I would buy such an album.

The question is how good it would be.

I simply struggle to believe that she could do his material justice, I think it’s both outside her emotional capacity and a bit too complicated for her singing ability.
And it would call into question why she keeps rehashing the same angry woman songs… my theory has always been that it was because she couldn’t do a wider variety of material.

So I’d enjoy the album, but with it it calls into question her career, authenticity and her respect for Country Music with her choice of past material…

So I think most fans would be split down the middle, but I think the quality of the music itself would shift a lot of units and that MOST parties involved would benefit even if a few people wanted to call “Fake” and “this just means she’s deliberately recorded bad material because she only cares about money not music”

And usually I’m that person… so in a hypothetical situation, if such an album were announced with no warning, I would be the pessimist calling her out.

I won’t compare her to folks like Lynn, Parton and others because it isn’t fair. But I love Miranda. When she first came on the scene I remember her giving props to Jack Ingram when he was on the Texas circuit before his ill fated Nashville career so she has always been that kind of person.

I have also always thought that when she hits that point where radio plays her less and other artists take their turn at the big time, she will become a more independent artist and maybe even have a career similar to Roseane Cash, Emmylou and Lucinda Williams. She will always tour, release albums and such. I am not comparing her to them in terms of creativity (or maybe I am?) but in terms of loyal followings and respect. I like her and I kind of wish it would happen soon because I think many of us can agree that she is too good for Music Row.

First, love me some Miranda and only partly because she is giving attention to artists and music that country radio won’t touch.
Second, John Moreland is one of our best songwriters. It takes honest-to-God real talent to craft a song like he does. That said, not just anyone is going to be able to cut a Moreland song and make do it justice. Most of his work is not exactly radio friendly and he pours so much of himself into a song that it might sound weird and insincere if sung by someone else. Maybe the right person could do it, but I think it might be rare.